I chose Biological Augment: Reinforced Skeleton, then looked at my interface with satisfaction.

Abilities:

Powerful Blow (125%)

Biological Augment: Sprinter (200%)

Biological Augment: Reinforced Skeleton (191.7*%)

That was a much better synergy percentage between abilities. Over 80%! I bounced on my toes and instantly felt a difference. Yep, definitely faster. If there was another benefit for reaching 200% synergy, it wasn’t immediately apparent.

“Awesome,” I said. “So, Avalanche, you try to see if you two can buy or borrow some of the alien lights. I’ll go back out with you and Zephyr in a few hours, once it’s cooled off a little more.”

“Thank you,” Avalanche said. “I really appreciate it.”

JoeyT snorted. “The rest of TAF is coming too. Even with Captain Ninja here along, you’ll be safer with more backup.”

Zephyr didn’t look up, but Avalanche flashed her teammate a grateful smile.

“You don’t think they need everyone, do you Vince?” Byron asked.

“Nah.”

“Okay. We’ve got a lot to get done, after all. John, you want to help me and Davi get a pump and filter put together?”

John nodded, looking thoughtful. “Sure. ‘Fore we all split up, though, anyone got any ideas on what we should name the truck? I was thinking maybe Pacer.”

JoeyT laughed. “Don’t people usually give their cars girl names?”

“It’s common,” John acknowledged. “But not me. I’m too smart for that.”

“Too smart?”

John shook a finger at the younger man. “No lady names, no people names. It’s too easy for a hobby you love to cause trouble in your marriage without bringing jealousy into it. I love my car, but I love it like a… a pet.”

“Fair enough,” Joey said. “Never been married, but eSports have caused enough trouble in my dating life, just by taking up so much time. I dunno if I like the name Pacer, though. If we’re trusting this thing with our lives, I’d rather it have a tougher name, like Tank or something.”

“Kind of generic,” I said. “We’re bringing it back from the dead. How about Zombie?”

“Zombies are the classic trash mob,” Twinkles said. “Why name the truck something weak?”

John frowned at me. “There’s no dignity in the name Zombie. But… we can think about it more as we work. Can’t finalize the name until we get it running. Just wanted you all to start thinking. A good name is important.”

I didn’t mind the lighthearted argument. It was nice to sit on a padded floor in a safe place and talk about something that wasn’t critical, even if we’d have to get moving again soon.

When we’d been escaping from the airport, I’d held the ValuCo in my mind as a destination where we’d stop: a place of safety where we’d be able to rest, regroup, and get our bearings. It had been, but only to an extent.

All the drinkables had been collected into one spot behind the grills. The stack was massive, but the people guarding it were doling it out a single drink at a time. Angry yelling erupted from time to time as people tried to take cans or cups they’d been given away from the eating area.

“No hoarding!” a man snarled at a startled teen. “If you’re thirsty, drink it! Don’t carry it off.”

“That’s going to be a problem,” said Byron. “I don’t want to leave here without enough hydration for a few days. We can’t be sure how long it will take to find more.”

I sighed. “Too bad we can’t get a plane working. Then we could zip right home, fly right over any other problems in our way.”

“Other problems?” asked Twinkles. “Like what?”

“Monsters? Traffic jams? Car accidents?” I grimaced. “Other people? I'm not expecting smooth sailing. If it takes us a week to get this truck working and we only make it 30 miles, it’ll still be a net gain. I hope we can do better than that, though.”

“Why would we get in a car accident?” JoeyT asked.

Twinkles shoved him. “Not us, doofus. He means the people who were already on the road. I think.”

“Oh, shit. What are we gonna do about those? Can semis do offroading?”

John wrinkled his nose at the profanity, but didn’t address it. “Depends on what you mean. Practically? I wouldn’t risk it. Trucks are big and heavy. You drive off-road into some mud and your undercarriage is gonna be resting on the turf in no time. Maybe we could get it free again, but what if it tips over? No way, no how. That’s it. All our hard work erased and we have to start from square one.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“We definitely need to leave with some water,” Byron said. “There’s no point in leaving if we leave with nothing. If that’s all we can manage, we might as well stay until stuff here runs out.”

“I think we’ll be able to do that, if we hurry,” I said.

Byron frowned at me, but before he could open his mouth to ask questions, I continued. “They may be rationing, but I’m sure we can wheedle a few days’ water out of them if we promise to get out of their hair at the same time.” While I spoke, I turned my thumb downward, using my body to shield it from John’s sight.

“Right,” Byron said, his tone uncertain.

I let my eyes drift to a nearby garage door. “There’s still enough to drink in this building for everyone, for the time being. No need for most people to look elsewhere.”

I raised an eyebrow as I looked back at Byron. His eyes widened in realization. “Ohhh. That’s true!”

…

When I went out later that night with TAF, they’d bought or borrowed six lights. One for each of us, hypothetically, although I convinced the team that they were more useful on the ground than carried.

We left through the door nearest the airport, clearing the area between the warehouse and the fence to make things easier for any late-night arrivals. It didn’t seem likely, but we had to fight somewhere: why not start where it might make a difference?

I paid attention to my body as we took down the initial group of spacedogs, trying to detect what bonus I might have gotten for raising Sprinter to 200%. I seemed stronger, but we’d found out that all abilities made you a little stronger. I was definitely faster, but that was just what Sprinter did, not some new functionality. Could I jump higher? Maybe a little, but that could just be related to my increased strength.

After we’d taken out the pack near the door, the rest of us hung back , only jumping in when Zephyr had to deal with more than one opponent at a time. She wasn’t the best fighter, but the monsters had a hard time doing more than cosmetic damage to her scales. I tried to give her advice on fighting more effectively, but after my second suggestion, Avalanche stepped close to me and hissed. “Cut it out. I know you’re trying to help, but you’re just stressing her out.”

In spite of this, Bolero only had to heal Zephyr twice, once when a monster’s claw managed to penetrate the slightly-less-armored area on the back of her knee, and another time when Zephyr made a mistake and hit her own toe with the sledgehammer.

“I think we should head in,” Avalanche said. “You’re getting tired, Lily. We can finish this up tomorrow night.”

“I need sixty more,” Zephyr said. “Let’s stay out. I can rest during the day.”

“No, I’m with Avalanche,” Twinkles called. “I can sense your body temperature, and it’s rising. Only about a degree above normal so far, but it’s not going back down. I was keeping you chilled up until now, but I’m getting really tired and I’ve gotta stop. Your temperature will just keep getting worse if you keep exercising.”

“Aaaargh!” the normally-quiet Zephyr screamed. She swung her sledgehammer down, chipping the pavement. “I hate this. No rules, no guides, al’ost no hints. I can’t try my hardest! The second I try, I start ‘ucking dying!”

“Wow, you just went up by another half a degree,” Twinkles said.

Zephyr spun, holding out her sledgehammer to point at him. “Not! Hel’ing!”

Avalanche came up behind the shorter woman, laying a hand gently on the small of her back. “Come on, Lil. It’ll all be different once you get Temperature Tolerance. You’ll see.”

“If you guys go out again early in the morning, you’re welcome to wake me up. I can nap during the day too,” I offered.

Avalanche nodded gratefully and we headed indoors.

Byron was waiting for us near the entrance. I stopped to chat with him, sticking with innocuous topics at first: how the outing had gone; how many points Zephyr had earned; my inability to figure out what bonus I’d gotten for reaching 200% on Sprinter, if I’d even gotten anything.

Eventually, TAF was out of earshot.

“Well?” my friend asked.

“Most of the trailers out there are full. Very little echo when I tapped the outside. They’re locked, so we’ll need Kurt’s help to get them open and pick a good one, but I think we can leave with plenty of supplies as long as we can head out in the next couple days.”

Byron nodded. “We’re lucky that most people are staying inside, but… the longer we wait, the more likely it is that people will start taking control of the trailers, too. The warehouse still has tons, but… well... if people stop being so willing to share…”

“If people stop being willing to share, we’ll have a riot on our hands,” I said.

“True enough.” Byron sighed. “Davi picked up what you were suggesting, but I talked with her. We’ll stay quiet about it. Hopefully we can get the truck fixed quickly.”

“It’s only a matter of time before other people start thinking about the trailers,” I said. “I think Twinkles figured it out too. Maybe more of TAF, but I caught Twinkles looking at me when I was tapping the sides.”

“He didn’t say anything, though?”

“Nah. Just nodded.”

Byron laughed. “Well, if anyone knows the importance of information control, I’d expect it would be pro eSports players. I’ll talk to him. The real problem is going to be John.”

“Yeah. I think… I think a lot of his moral posturing is just that, posturing. If we hook up a trailer at the last minute and say we’ll hand out supplies to people we find that need them more, he’ll go along with it. He’s scared too.”

“If he finds out in advance, though, he’s not gonna keep his mouth shut,” Byron said. “And if he opens it up, we might end up fighting our way out of here.”

I nodded, face grim.

“Problems for another day,” said Byron. “We should head to bed. Or, I guess, you’ll eat your third dinner and head to bed.”

“Nah,” I said. “I’m exhausted. I had a few pieces of pizza earlier and I’m still pretty full.”

“What.” Byron’s voice was flat with disbelief.

“Oh! I’m not hungry!”